Can The Lib Dems Win The Election?

It wasn’t long ago jokes like these were commonplace in pubs up and down the country..

• Q: How do you keep a Lib Dem Politician busy?
• A: Write ‘Please turn over’ on both sides of a piece of paper.
•  
• Q: How do you keep a Lib Dem Politician busy all day?
• A: Put him in a round room and tell him to wait in the corner.

Kind of humorous, no? Except, the British public ain’t laughing at this moment in time. We’re exasperated with both the Tories and Labour. Then last Thursday at the first Leaders debate on ITV, we were offered a third choice for the first time in a long time, we liked what we saw in this Lib Dem leader called Nick Clegg.

A recent surge in Lib Dem popularity has seen them overtake Labour in the polls and in some instances, actually pip the Tories into first place. Tonight, the second Leaders debate takes place on SKY TV and if the story goes to plan you’ll probably see the ugly sisters (Cameron and Brown) gang up on poor Cinderella (Clegg), because if they don’t, then Nick Clegg’s fairytale rise to No.10 may just become a reality.

#market(genelec2010)#

Smear campaigns are nothing new to politics and those looking to wager on the next prime minister betting will have noticed a volley of stories aimed directly at tarnishing Clegg’s reputation. First, came The Sun (flying the flag for the Tory cause) claiming that Clegg was now wobbling on whether to pull the troops out of Afghanistan, then The Daily Telegraph accusing Clegg of receiving party donations directly into his own personal bank account, The Daily Express also got in on the action by portraying the Lib Dem’s immigration policies as “crazy” and finally The Daily Mail also went on the attack by slamming a printed article written by Nick Clegg from eight years ago. Seems popularity comes at a price.

There is a real certainty that we could all be living under a hung Parliament come May the 6th and politicians could be living in a hand to mouth existence, especially when it comes to trying to push through new legislation and laws. And if a hung Parliament is the outcome then there is a great chance that we’ll all have another general election betting some time next year, if not earlier.